Engineering in Society and Company Finance - 2019 entry

This module will provide you with essential knowledge for all engineers, which will benefit you in your future career. It will impart a basic understanding of engineering ethics: the legal and moral responsibility that comes with being an engineering professional, to your employer, to public safety, and to the environment. The concept of sustainability will be introduced and explained. In addition, you will gain basic training in standard financial documents: balance sheets, income statements, cash flow forecasts, and profit and loss statements. You will also learn how to do simple manufacturing and project costing.

This module is designed to raise your awareness of your future responsibilities to society as a professional engineer. It aims to equip you with a working understanding of non-technical issues such as social responsibility, health and safety, sustainability, product liability and intellectual property. Finally, it will equip you to make simple financial appraisals of projects and to operate in the commercial environment.

This is a constituent module of one or more degree programmes which are accredited by a professional engineering institution under licence from the Engineering Council. The learning outcomes for this module have been mapped to the output standards required for an accredited programme, as listed in the current version of the Engineering Council’s ‘Accreditation of Higher Education Programmes’ document (AHEP-V3).

This module contributes to learning outcomes: SM6m, D2p, D2m, ET1p-ET4p, ET1m-ET4m, ET5p, ET5m, ET6p, ET6m, ET7m, EP5p, EP5m, EP6p, EP6m, EP7p, EP7m, EP9p, EP11m

A full list of the referenced outcomes is provided online:

https://intranet.exeter.ac.uk/emps/studentinfo/subjects/engineering/accreditation/

The AHEP document can be viewed in full on the Engineering Council’s website, at http://www.engc.org.uk/


On successful completion of this module, you should be able to:

Module Specific Skills and Knowledge:

1 appreciate the principal responsibilities of a professional engineer to the employer, the public and the environment;

2 comprehend the basic legal, regulatory and financial issues relating to production and projects;

3 interpret standard financial documents: Balance Sheet, Profit and Loss account, Cash Flow forecast;

4 understand and apply simple manufacturing and project costing.

Discipline Specific Skills and Knowledge:

5 grasp the ethical and moral responsibilities of a professional engineer;

6 demonstrate an awareness of the requirements regarding health and safety, as they apply to their work as professional engineers;

7 show familiarity with the processes of risk assessment in engineering activities;

8 understand the origin, evolution, and content of the concept of sustainability;

9 prove knowledge of the requirements of sustainability and the management of environmental resources.

Personal and Key Transferable/ Employment Skills and  Knowledge:

10 evaluate information from a diverse range of sometimes conflicting sources;

11 exhibit an understanding of the issues involved in engineering and use relevant approaches to make difficult decisions.

The module will cover the majority of issues below, but will be flexible enough to devote time to emerging contemporary issues:

- product liability;

- intellectual property;

- copyright;

- registration of designs and patents;

- counterfeit products;

- data protection and security;

- the concept of sustainability;

- sustainability in product design and manufacture;

- remanufacturing, repair, re-cycling;

- energy balance, lifecycle costing and environmental impact;

- health and safety responsibilities and ethics;

- health and safety regulations - HASAWA, COSHH, etc;

- equal opportunities;

- globalisation and effects of lowest-cost production on third world countries;

- climate change and emerging policy questions;

- disaster relief;

- state, company and individual contributions and responsibilities;

- assessment and management of risk in complex engineering systems;

- company accounts, financial returns for small enterprises, profit and loss, balance sheet;

- project costing, cost centres, earned value analysis, forecast vs actual costs;

- direct and indirect costs, overhead apportionment;

- activity based costing;

- break-even analysis;

- budgeting and cash-flow, investment appraisal.

If a module is normally assessed entirely by coursework, all referred/deferred assessments will normally be by assignment.

If a module is normally assessed by examination or examination plus coursework, referred and deferred assessment will normally be by examination. For referrals, only the examination will count, a mark of 40% being awarded if the examination is passed. For deferrals, candidates will be awarded the higher of the deferred examination mark or the deferred examination mark combined with the original coursework mark.

ELE – http://vle.exeter.ac.uk

Reading list for this module:

Atrill, P, McLaney, E,  Accounting and Finance for Non-Specialists, 3rd edition Prentice Hall, 2001, ISBN: 978-0273646327

Davis J and Lambert R, Engineering in Emergencies: a practical guide for relief workers, Technology Publications 1995, ISBN: 000-1-853-39222-7

Kletz T, Learning from Accidents, 3rd edition Butterworth Heinemann 2001, ISBN: 978-0750648837

Upchurch A, Management Accounting: Principles and Practice. Pitman Publications 1998, ISBN: 000-0-273-62226-9

Reynolds A J, The Finances of Engineering Companies: An introduction for students and practising engineers, Arnold 1993, ISBN: 000-0-340-56827-3

Collins S, Ghey J and Mills G, The Professional Engineer in Society, Kingsley 1989, ISBN: 1853025011

Steffy, Loren C, Drowning in Oil: BP and the reckless pursuit of profit, McGraw-Hill 2010, ISBN: 978-0071760812

Reading list for this module: